1)
Huh. Some of my vassals are having a private fight to depose one of my duchesses within my kingdom, despite having medium crown authority. How is this possible?
Because They are Rebelling against their Local Lord. Just like When a Duke Or Duchess Revolts against you. Only these counts Have decided that they would rather take their chances under your Direct rule then your duchesses Direct rule.
I saw this happen in my own game as well. If they're successful, what happens to the Duchy title, exactly? Switches to the count that initiated the successful revolt? Reverts to the king?
2) If I have a particular vassal at, let's say, -10 opinion because of raised levies, then disband the relevant levy, and then raise them immediately, does the opinion modifier keep counting from -10, or start over from -1 while the -10 modifier decays with time?
Basically: I'd like to use raising levies as a way to get particular vassals to revolt (so I can revoke their titles), but I'd like to be able to disband-and-re-raise the levy occasionally (e.g. just finished a distant campaign and am disbanding my whole army). Will that work?
Also: will small (e.g. counts, or sub-count barons, or even mayors) still revolt once you're excessively powerful (e.g. an Emperor) or do they stop, keeping you from using revolts as a way to revoke titles?
More generally, what's some good advice for making particular vassals revolt?
3) Let's say I'm playing as Dublin (which appears to be the Official Starting County for people learning the game as counts). My dynasty members will usually be Irish (unless e.g. I give someone a foreign-cultured tutor) If I end up acquiring a duchy and its counties in, say, Scotland, what exactly do I gain from the extra work of tutoring dynasty members to have Scottish culture and instating them?
Another way of asking the same question: why do I care about relations between vassals (e.g. an Irish duke or count) and their subvassals (e.g. a Scottish count or mayor)? Does it affect the taxes I receive? The levies?
4) As Dublin in particular, or just in general, what's the best long-term plan for which counties (with possibly multiple sub-baronies) go in my ruler's demesne? It's important to figure out early because of how buildings are long-term investments. Some factors:
* I'd prefer more baronies to less, obviously, up to my demesne limit, for the 100% levy access.
* Early in the game, that means lots of counties. Later in the game I
can build additional baronies in counties and distribute away excess counties; I'm not sure whether that's
better.
* I'd prefer to hold as few duchies as possible, because of the opinion penalty once you have more than two, and because I sometimes pick up extra ones from conquest.
* I'd prefer to own all the counties in the duchies I do own, and none on those I don't, to avoid "we desire your title" opinion penalties.
* I can move my capital around, but I'd lose both expensive buildings and a tech advantage (from the spymaster mission).
* Different rulers in my game will have different state stewardship scores, so I'd prefer flexibility in # of held baronies while still aiming for all of the above, but I'm not sure how to get it, and I'm not sure how to return baronies to my demesne (for rulers with high stewardship) other than revoking (which invokes tyranny) or prompting revolts (and I don't know if that works once you're powerful enough and they're still barons, see question #2).
My current plan is something like "acquire all the counties in Meath + Leinster + Ulster (eight, if you're not familiar with Ireland), then form+hand off Leinster if/when I've built enough extra baronies in Meath+Ulster."
5) Can kingdoms be revoked by an emperor?
6) The later Castle Town upgrades seem really expensive for the benefit they provide. Take the Great Castle City: 400 gold for a +3.5/year benefit. Even with, say, +50% from state stewardship that's eighty years to pay off. Are they worth it?
Thanks.